Iceman

I have a general rule of thumb that says I will never buy a vehicle for my personal use that is in common application as a fleet vehicle for rental car companies. In fact, I often find myself wondering when I strap myself into my rental Cavalier or Taurus, "Who actually BUYS these pieces of crap??!!"

Now Infiniti is in that boat, as the G35 sedan is offered at most Hertz locations across the country. It is considered a "YG" class, or specialty premium (one step up from full-size). With the prevalence of free upgrade coupons, that means you can drive a G35 for around $30 a day in most places.

To me, this is a sign that the G35 (at least in sedan form) is a failure. When a car company has to resort to selling models off to rental car fleets it is generally because there are not enough gullible buyers out there to keep them from piling up on dealers' lots. And if Infiniti is trying to build their brand image, this is NOT a good way to do it! Even the Jaguar X-Type is considered a "prestige collection" vehicle, starting at a daily rate about twice that of the Infiniti.

Brand erosion hell indeed...

LexFather

Iceman, what u stated is why no one takes Infiniti seriously. They cannot afford mistakes like this. I am shocked it's a rental. Combined G35 sedan and coupe sales are about 5k a month or higher I think (now does this include fleet sales). Rental=cheap car. I cannot believe this.

Another boneheaded move. Prestige vehicles need to avoid places that are for non-prestige vehicles. And if it goes there, PRICE IT ACCORDINGLY!

The only reason I can see they WANTING to do this is to show the car's capabilites to people. Which is a semi-good idea.

Infiniti as a whole though has a ways to go. For instance, I CANNOT LIE, I was close to purchasing a G35 coupe around X-Mas.(don't kill me). After a lot of thinking and not being able to overlook some issues with the car, I decided no thanks.

It is OVER 1 MONTH LATER, I get 10 e-mails a week and 1 call a week on the answering maching to come by and check out the G35coupe. On top of that, Infiniti sent me the wrong brochure. I wanted and checked for the G35coupe only, I got the whole product brochure. If I was buying a Nissan or Kia, these things are expected, from a "luxury" car maker, hell no.

D2-AUTOSPORT

I really cant believe they would do that either, when you see a American "premium luxury car" ie, Cadillac, being used as a rental, its no big deal, but a Foreign make? Imagine being able to get a LS430 from Avis

You chose a perfect title for this thread. The G35 seems to be a very good car (I like the coupe alot as well ) I cannot believe they would do something so detrimental to the equity of the brand.

The only reason I can think of is they need to move more volume to make up for some of the "showroom slugs" that they have now (Q45, I35, etc etc)

jet864

I wasn't aware that it was a concsious decision by the car manufacturer to sell their products to rental companies. I figured if the rental company wanted to have a fleet of Z06's, GS430's, whatever, they could buy lots of units and make them available to be rented by whoever was willing to pay for them. If, by choice however, Infiniti marketed the G35 specifically to rental companies in hopes thtat they will buy them in bulk, thats pretty sad. I thought the G35 was gonna be a new turning point for Infiniti.

James

D2-AUTOSPORT

I think they get special lease rates from the manufacturers when they do fleet sales. At least I know my company does that for our esteemed Ford Taurus'!!! LOL

LexFather

Ford owns Hertz so that is expected. I know the Maxima is a rental car too (new generation), that was surprising. This just means you can buy a G35 for 15k soon, when Avis/Hertz whoever decides to sell the car. It's a rental, so most people don't care, just want whats cheap. Car companies send their cars there to meet sales results as well as give the car exposure.
The Taurus is notorious for being in the top running for sales but being a huge rental fleet car.

Indio

iTrader: (1)

Bottom line: sales, they don't care what we think, they build cars to sell them and the more the better. A cars success depends on how many units they move first and foremost, a nicely equipped G35 can be had for about 32k (not much more than a Maxima), negotiate a fleet price and these cars become very attractive to rental fleets and renters alike, would you rent a Taurus or a G35 for $5 more a day?You dont have to worry about seeing an LS or GS down at Hertz because they are priced high enough to prevent that from happening, in this economy, nothing a company does to sell it's product should suprise you.

Bean

iTrader: (1)

Well the trouble is hurting your image; and in the Luxury and luxo-performance industry; image is everything...
it may help in the short run; but over a long period their image will degrade...

"Oh thats a cheap rental car" will be in the back of people's minds.... they wont think it out loud; it will just be their perception; and that perception is NOT what Infiniti needs right now

they have very few good selling vehicles... Nissan itself has made a huge turnaround... all i see everywhere are new maximas, altimas, sentras, Zs, etc... but Infiniti i rarely see

Indio

iTrader: (1)

That's because the parent companies (Nissan, Honda, Ford) always price the mainstream vehicles for much higher sales numbers vs. the upscale counterparts (Infiniti, Acura, Lincoln respectively), the luxury divisions have much more realistic sales numbers, but usually have a higher profit margin per vehicle. Lexus doesn't survive by selling LS and GS sedans, they are able to offer them because of the huge numbers of RX and ES's they move each month. Example: a few years ago a school district in Palm Beach, Florida bought a fleet of BMW 330's for drivers ed! Not a good image move, but the huge numbers of 3 series cars they sell allow them to build toys such as M3, M5 and 760, without the bottom feeders, there would be no budget for these toys. The manufacturers view of the car world is very different from ours.

BLK13X

There's a rental company here in Australia that rents out not only the normal stuff but also the VW Toureags??! (sp)

SilverBullet

Interesting, I know 1-2 rental places here who have Lexus as well.

mmarshall

I think you guys are worrying about image too much. Who CARES if the G35 is a rental car or not? It's a good sports sedan....equal to the BMW 3-series and IS300 in many ways. If you like it, buy it. Heck, I know firms that rent out Dodge Vipers, Ferraris, Corvette Z06's, and other exotic cars....for several hundered bucks a night.....to guys who want to impress their dates or have a setting for it.

One has to deal with enough problems owning a car without worrying about who rents them and for how much.

Milla...

Well you guys I don't know, if that all makes you sick then stay away from Beverly Hills, Budget rentals there has nothing but luxury cars Lincoln/Acrua/Lexus/ Jag/ Infinity/MB/BMW/Porche/Ferrari/vetts/ Aston M./Viper/Hummer/G-wagon/ Bently. Then again its Beverly Hills so this may be aside from your point. I don't know if this is still the case but at the airport you get ES300's all day.

Iceman

The exotic rental cars in Beverly Hills, Orlando, and Las Vegas are one thing. They are advertised as upscale products, and as mmarshall pointed out the cost is in the hundreds of dollars per day. The only reason a person would rent a car like that and pay that much money is to show off, so they have to offer more upscale or eye-catching cars than the general rental lots.

What I'm talking about is plain old Hertz at every airport in the country, renting a supposed luxury car for the same price as a Grand Marquis. I have personally never seen a Lexus as a rental car (not saying it isn't possible, just that I haven't seen it) and I rent cars about 50 times a year at various places all over the country.

Stefwilli

I would just like to start by saying that rental car companies are very much in Comp with each other. They are always trying to find new ways to get the rental customer to rent with them. These rental companies also know that the majority of people that rent the premium cars don't like getting an altima and having to pay the premium rate for it. So it would seem only logical that a rental car Co like hertz would try to get motor trends car of the year as their premium brand of car. With these G35s they can charge top rates and customers will pay and won't mind paying that rate. Not only that, but those customers will continue to rent with hertz because they will remember their last rental car being a G35. This has nothing to do with Infiniti being low on sales or brand erosion, it's just the fact that hertz is willing to pay a little more for their cars to get ahead on the Comp. If Avis called lexus next week and told them that they wanted to buy a fleet of IS cars at fair number, do you think Lexus wouldn't sale because of brand erosion? In the car business it's all about volume and thats it, lexus is grunting their teeth right now that hertz didn't want to buy a fleet of their cars.